Open heart surgery on 20-day-old baby

PATNA: In a remarkable surgical feat, a 20-day-old baby weighing two kg and suffering from complex congenital heart defect underwent successful open heart surgery by Dr Ajit Pradhan at a city-based private heart hospital two days ago.
“The child is doing very well after this complex surgery, done with the use of heart lung machine,” Dr Pradhan told TOI.The procedure is also known as cardiopulmonary bypass.
The use of heart lung machine in such small babies is associated with many problems and carries high risk. Being very demanding, only a few hospitals in the country are actually offering this service, said Pradhan, a noted cardiac surgeon.
What is heartening is the changing trend, he said. Earlier, the parents of such small sick children would think twice before getting them operated. But the parents of this child, Saroj Gupta and Amrendra Kumar Sah, from Mairwa in Gopalganj district, were determined to do anything to save the baby. They agreed to spend over Rs 1 lakh on the child’s surgery, where the risk was more than 50%.
Dr Pradhan was assisted in the surgery by his team members – Dr Shashank Shekhar, Dr Arvind Kumar, Dr Amitabh Verma and Pradeep Jha.